Prevalence of Psychological Distress and Associated Factors in Nursing Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Study

Fumiya Tanji and Yuki Kodama
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Fumiya Tanji: Faculty of Nursing, Japanese Red Cross Akita College of Nursing, Akita 010-1490, Japan
Yuki Kodama: Faculty of Nursing, Tokyo University of Information Sciences, Chiba 265-8501, Japan

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 19, 1-10

Abstract: Little is known about psychological distress and its associated factors during the COVID-19 pandemic among nursing students, especially during the initial spread. The present study aimed to investigate the prevalence of psychological distress among Japanese nursing students after the first semester of 2020 with shifted classes and practice online. Furthermore, we examined whether factors such as health issues and resilience were associated with psychological distress. The data were obtained from a cross-sectional, self-administered questionnaire survey at a Japanese nursing college from September to November 2020 ( n = 289). We collected data such as sociodemographic variables, medical history, insomnia, and resilience (Bidimensional Resilience Scale). Psychological distress was measured using the K6 scale (scores ? 5). The prevalence of psychological distress was 58.5%. The multivariate Poisson regression analysis found a negative association between innate resilience factors, and positive associations between medical history, insomnia, and psychological distress. The present study showed that more than half of the study participants experienced high levels of psychological distress. Our results suggest the importance of monitoring mental health among nursing students, focusing not only on health issues, but also personality components such as innate resilience during the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords: psychological distress; resilience; insomnia; nursing student; COVID-19 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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